Only A Matter Of Time
by reasonistreason
Summary: How the hell did Lily Evans fall in love with James Potter, anyway? Marauders Era, sixth to seventh year, etc. etc. Probable swearing. Fluff/angst abound. Enjoy!
1. She Doesn't Know It Yet

"Please."

"No."

"Please?"

"No!"

"Lily, please!"

"No means no, Potter! Get out of my way!"

A deeply flushing Lily Evans shoved bodily past the tall, dark-haired boy obstructing her path to her next class, huffing and flipping of her long flaming hair, clutching her books to her chest like her life depended on it. The scruffy boy pivoted on one foot to watch her pass, then grinned lazily and loped behind her, falling in step next to her within a matter of seconds.

"Just one date, Evans. It won't hurt."

"Maybe it won't hurt me, but I don't think I could spend more than a few minutes with you without punching you in the face." Lily's large green eyes met James' hazel ones for a second, and disappointingly, he could see nothing but disgust in them. He frowned. "I can take a punch," he said, his lips forming what was quite nearly a pout. Lily could only stare at him incredulously before quickening her pace, hoping that the faster she got to her next class, the faster she would be rid of the lanky teenager who was tailing her persistently. She turned a corner and got a brief glimpse of the rest of Potter's gang, watching them with a mixture of expressions - Black with an amused smirk, as if he were betting on how long it would take Lily to give in, Remus with an exasperated look as he watched James chasing her, and Peter with an almost anxious look, although as far as she knew, Peter Pettigrew always seemed anxious.

James turned the corner with her, seemingly oblivious to her annoyance, although she suspected that was more acting than anything else. "James, leave me alone." Lily left no room for argument in her tone, but as usual, James pretended she hadn't said anything. "One date, Lily. Tomorrow's a Hogsmeade weekend. Just one date, that's all." He sounded almost hopeful, as if he was certain that she wouldn't shoot him down like she had been doing for the past two years. As she glared up at him (she was a rather petite girl and James was much taller than she), James took the opportunity to wedge himself in the doorway she had been about to enter. Lily growled in annoyance and, with a surprising amount of strength considering her size, put both hands on his chest and pushed him out of the way. "Next time, I'll hex you," she said heatedly, her lips curling into a snarl as she stalked off to her class, leaving a smirking James in her wake.

God, he loved it when she did that little annoyed growl.

James watched the slim, fiery-haired angel stomp off away from him with a lazy smile on his face, his eyes following her compulsively before she vanished around a corner, copper curls whipping out of sight. With an almost-weary sigh, he turned around and slipped out of the doorway, ambling towards his next class. Almost immediately, his three best friends joined him, the four of them forming a perfect diamond as they all but strutted down the corridor. Well, Sirius and James strutted, while Remus shuffled quietly behind them and Peter scurried. "I don't understand why you keep harassing her like this," Remus tutted after a long silence, rubbing the circles under his eyes as they passed a group of giggling girls. James scoffed. "It's not harassment, I'm trying to wear her down. She's in love with me, she just doesn't know it yet." All three teenage boys who so faithfully followed James through the twisting halls sighed simultaneously and shook their heads. That was James' defense for everything Lily-related. When she turned him down the first time, that was his first excuse, and he had been using it ever since. When Lily would brush past him in corridors without so much as acknowledging him, "She doesn't know it yet." When he cornered her in their fifth year and she slapped him across the face, "She doesn't know it yet." When he saw her kissing another boy and the jealousy made his chest hurt like his heart was being picked apart with needles, "She doesn't know it yet."

Sirius raised his eyebrow and objected - tactlessly, as always. "You've been asking her out every day for two years, Prongs. Maybe it's time to move on." James ignored that, like he ignored everything he didn't want to hear. The Marauders found it both endearing and annoying at the same time - while James' obstinacy could be hilarious to watch, it wasn't nearly as fun when it came to serious business. It was one of his worse traits. "She just needs more time," James insisted, and the rest of them let it slide. James could be reasoned with on most counts, but not when it came to Lily Evans, anything but Lily Evans. He had been in love with her for years now, and he was rarely attached to anything for more than a day, let alone a person for that long. He would fight for her, even if she would barely look at him. He had fought with boys with their eye on her, intimidated anybody who was thinking of asking her out and made it very, very clear that she was his. The first and only boy she had kissed had been hexed so badly that he was in the Hospital Wing recovering for two days and nobody had dared so much as look at her for a month. Sometimes he understood why she despised him so - his undying love for her was clearly scaring everybody away from her - but he regretted nothing. When she finally realized she loved him, everything would be alright. It was only a matter of time.

The group of four entered their History of Magic classroom right before Professor Binns floated in, as translucent and dreary as ever. They took their usual places and opened their textbooks, but James' mind was not on whatever the Professor was teaching now - he wasn't even following the syllabus anymore, he cared that little - but it was on that elusive red-haired, green eyed embodiment of perfection who so vehemently denied his advances. As the Professor droned on and everybody (except Remus, of course) began to nod off, James found himself picturing that flawless face glaring at him, and he smiled contentedly. Only a matter of time, he thought, only a matter of time. 


	2. Pairwork

Only a matter of time, indeed.

The very next day, Lily Evans got up with a scowl on her face at having to face yet another day in her rather monotonous life. Her routine was rarely changed and followed to a tee: wake up, brush her teeth, wash her face, untangle her insanely curly hair with her fingers, give up, change into her robes, collect all she needed for the day, and grab a friend to ward off the inevitable appearance of James Potter. He managed to find her no matter where she was or what time of the day it was, no matter how many roundabout routes she took or how carefully she timed her movements. Eventually, she had given up on trying to avoid it. It truly was uncanny, how he found her no matter what. So instead of trying to prevent him tracking her down and cornering her, she had changed her tactics: she now simply walked past him if she could and ignored him as best as she possibly could.

It was a lot harder than it sounded. He would trail behind her in the corridors, chanting his never-changing request at her as she brisk walked around the school, sometimes even invading the time she needed for prefect duties just so he could ask her out and be rejected again. It was exhausting, having to look around every corner just in case he was there. Still, it was an occupational hazard of being Lily Evans. With a sigh, she looked around the common room, eyeing the empty room with a mixture of annoyance and despair. There was nobody to bring with her – she would have to brave the world outside on her own. She shook out her long hair and stepped out of the portrait hole, ducking her head slightly out of habit so she wouldn't smack her forehead on the top of the wooden frame.

She looked around and to her surprise, James Potter (and gang) was nowhere in sight. Not lurking the corridors, not slouching against a nearby wall, not causing havoc, not even just going for breakfast. They were just not there. Lily frowned and hesitated for a second before stepping fully out of the common room, letting the portrait of the Fat Lady swing slowly shut behind her without the slightest of creaks. Slowly, she took a few steps away from the safety of the common room, then seized the opportunity to make as much headway to her class as she could before he inevitably popped out of nowhere. She liked to be early to classes and often skipped breakfast – when she had the classrooms to herself, she could study and ask the professor questions when they popped into her head, not to mention she was relatively safe in classrooms, seeing as Potter was much less inclined to bother her with a professor watching. She valued that above anything. Quietly, she stole through the hallways and was rewarded when she stepped into the classroom without having being bothered once. It was the first time in a long time she had managed to avoid being harassed before actually properly starting her day. Unusually cheerful and energetic, Lily half-danced into the room, balancing on the balls of her feet with a bounce in her step, and took her usual place in the front of the class after gingerly placing her homework on the professor's desk. She started to arrange her table the way she usually did – quill and ink on the right, books, parchment and notes on the right. She was methodical in everything she did and the way she set up her desk for class was no exception.

However, her bliss was short-lived. Students began to fill the classroom after a few minutes, including her least favorite group of sixth year Gryffindor boys, the tallest of whom winked at her as he strutted past, his black hair in disarray. Lily glared purposefully in the other direction until he was gone, then settled back in her chair with a huff. It felt childish, the way she treated him, but she had always been too passionate and fiery to treat somebody icily the way "mature adults" would. She was never lacking in emotions and it was practically impossible for her to be intentionally cruel to a person. Her mother always said she had too much heart. She liked to think that it was that that made her a true Gryffindor. As their little procession passed by her, she returned Remus' tired smile as he walked in Potter's wake – at least him, she could tolerate, since he was the voice of reason in that foursome – but ignored the rest, choosing instead to look ahead at the professor who was starting his lesson. "We'll be doing pair work for our next assignment," he announced to the class as the babbling died down, and Lily frowned. She hated pairwork – she always preferred to do the work on her own and get all the credit rather than have to split the credit and end up doing all the work anyway. Her reputation of being a workaholic was well known and most people took advantage of it to get good grades.

"And to save you all the trouble of picking partners," the professor continued, and Lily could have sworn she saw a cheeky smirk on his lips, "I've picked your partners for you at random." A slow dread dawned on her as she looked around the class. Surely fate could not be so cruel. The best partner she could have possibly gotten would be Remus Lupin, since she could actually gotten along with him and split some work, and the worst… well, that much was obvious, wasn't it? She didn't even want to imagine having to do _work_ with James Potter, she couldn't imagine being obligated to spend time with him. She couldn't let this happen. All this went through her mind as the professor rattled off names, in order of alphabet. She crossed her fingers and closed her eyes as he said, "Lily Evans, and…" he peered over the top of his reading glasses. "James Potter." He muttered something about mix-ups and peered at his sheet again, but shook his head to himself and confirmed the pair with a nod. "Yes, Lily Evans and James Potter."

_Oh_. She buried her face in her hands and told herself not to turn around, for Merlin's sake, don't turn around, don't let him see your reaction. But she turned, and her big emerald eyes only needed to see the big grin on his face before she recoiled and stared at the professor, her mouth slightly open in horror. She couldn't take it, absolutely not. "_Sir!" _she interjected indignantly, shaking her head violently, her red curls bouncing around in the most irritating way possible. She shoved her hair out of her face with a scowl. "Can't I _please_ swap partners with somebody?" she begged. Professor Slughorn pursed his lips and shook his head, looking confused at her sudden outburst. "That wouldn't be fair to the other students," he said plainly, a gentle but striking finality in his voice.

Defeated, Lily turned to look at Potter again and immediately regretted it by the look on the boy's face. He was rumpled and slouching in his chair, smirking infuriatingly at her. She spun back around so quickly she nearly got whiplash. Lily missed much of the lesson in her silent fuming after that, completely unable to concentrate on her class because she was so furious. Her head pounded painfully and she could feel the high red in her cheeks, and she sat sullenly in her seat and counted the minutes till she could escape and breathe. Ten… five… two… one… as soon as the lesson ended, she gathered everything she owned in her arms, perching things precariously on top of each other in her hurry to leave, and scurried out of the doorway, praying that she would make it out without Potter stopping her.

No such luck.

"Evans!" His voice was loud and boisterous and she could hear his shoes slapping loudly against the ground as he jogged towards her, ignoring her obvious efforts to find an escape route. Without asking, he plucked a few things off the teetering pile of books in her arms, then grabbed a few more so they were sharing the load. Despite the fact that it was a relief to have the weight off, she scowled at him pointedly. He didn't give her her belongings back. "What is it, Potter? I have things to do." It was rude of her (her mother would have been ashamed), but he had never been particularly deserving of manners anyway. He was a bully, and she despised bullies. The lanky boy seemed unfazed, and was all but gentlemanly. "I was just wondering as to when we'll be doing the project." She might despise the boy and call him pigheaded, but she could not deny that he had excellent manners. She looked up at him and frowned. "I'll do it. You won't have to lift a finger." Anything to stay away from you, she thought. But Potter wouldn't stand for it, she knew he wouldn't just give up an opportunity to harass her further. "No, we'll do it together," he said with a smirk. "Professor Slughorn says it has to be_ pair_work."

He followed Lily around the bend of the corridor and she could not help but think of a lost puppy. She glanced at him, about to say something, but he quickly interrupted with his own idea. "We should do it tonight. Get it over with. In the common room. What do you say?" She opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again, and managed a gruff "Fine" before holding out her pile of things so he could put everything back so she could enter her class. He ignored her and walked into her classroom, putting everything down at her usual table – how he knew where he sat without taking this class, she wasn't sure – and smirked that stupid smirk again as he walked past her on his way out. "See you tonight, Evans," he said loudly, obviously trying to embarrass her. It worked. She was a bright pink as she sat down, ignoring the conspicuous stares of her classmates.

It was only a few minutes later that she realized she had let James Potter walk her to class.


	3. Snivellus

**NOTE: **So it's been like, two and a half months since I last updated. I'm sorry. But tada! New (albeit short) chapter! Enjoy, review, etc.

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><p>"See you tonight, Evans," James said loudly, strolling out of the classroom with an obvious spring in his step, conspicuously ignoring her admonishing look, forcing a cocky grin until he turned the corner, at which point he stopped in his tracks, slumped against the nearest wall and released the breath he hadn't been aware he was holding. He dragged the back of his shaking hand across his forehead, wiping away the sweat that by the grace of some higher power, Lily Evans had not noticed seeping through his pores. Despite the cold weather, he was flushed and his skin was damp with perspiration. Talking to Lily always made him nervous and more often than not it showed through his feigned confidence. Really, everything he had learned about talking to girls he had learned from Sirius, whose easy confidence and smooth talking was something James had always coveted but never achieved.<p>

The other two of his best friends were no help – Remus himself maintained that the only things he would happily be in a relationship with were his books and Peter was more likely to wet himself in front of a girl than ask her on a date. It was always Sirius who would be off chatting up and snogging girls (usually a different one every day), Sirius who wolf-whistled at girls while the rest of them looked abashed on his behalf. Sirius was his one-man pep squad, his coach in how to talk to a female his age without looking like a total idiot. It was unfortunate how he was no use whatsoever when it came to being romantic, since Sirius never stuck around with a girl longer than a day.

James took a moment to collect his wits about him and straightened up, only to see a sneering, weedy Severus Snape standing a few feet away, watching him with a disgust written very clearly all over his face and his wand in his hand. James bristled immediately; this hook-nosed, greasy-haired atrocity of a wizard was not what he had wanted to see at that moment. Or, to be perfectly honest, ever. If he had the choice, he'd expel the stupid git just so he wouldn't have to see him ever again, or maybe shove him down an extremely long flight of stairs so that he would be incapacitated for a very, very long period of time.

He had every reason to hate Snivellus, really. Snivellus would draw his wand at the very sight of him or Padfoot, which was _clearly_ because he was looking for a fight. He usually got one, too, although it was never _much_ of a fight, usually it ended after either he or Padfoot flicked their wand and sent the wanker up into the air, hanging by his foot. (He did _so_ love _levicorpus_.) And… well… there was also the fact that the ungrateful Slytherin was – or, had been – friends with Lily Evans. It was always a sore point with him. _What does Snivellus have that I don't? _he would ask Sirius late at night, when everybody else was asleep. _He's up to his ears in dark magic and he's prejudiced and ugly and what could _possibly_ make Evans like _him_ more than _me_? _Well, he had stopped asking that some time that year when stupid, ungrateful Snivellus had called her a mudblood and despite her calling him an arrogant toerag, there was a spring in his step when he left and something in his chest that felt awfully like hope. (Not that Snivellus was competition. He was no competition. Of _course_ not.)

Don't get your hopes up, Sirius told him with that warning tone he only took with James, but the swaggering boy ignored his best friend as per usual. He always had his hopes up when it came to Lily Evans.

James put his own hand on his wand and stood up straight, doing his best to look intimidating. He could take stupid skinny wimpy Snape on his own. "Problem, Snivellus?" Contempt dripped from his every word, the hatred in the air between them tangible. Those dark, red-rimmed eyes glared back at him as the weedy Slytherin cleared his throat. "None, Potter. I was just thinking how pathetic it is that a mudblood could have you pining like an abandoned puppy," he said coldly. It was clearly meant to be menacing, but it came out apprehensive because of his thin voice. James snorted, his hand tightening around his wand. "Jealous, Snape? I do have more of a chance than you."

"Hardly," the other boy shot back, much too quickly. He paused, as if mentally editing his words. He said carefully, "She's a mudblood. To some of us, not mingling with the inferior does matter. We're not all _blood traitors._" James growled deep in his throat at that. "You'd best walk away, Snape, or I'll hex you and float you through the castle in nothing but your underpants, I swear to Merlin." He smiled his nastiest smile and pulled his wand from his pocket, raising it level with the other boy's awfully large nose. Snape's eyes crossed slightly as he looked down the wand, then narrowed resentfully at James. "I could take you," the Slytherin sniffed. James laughed. "If I were you, I wouldn't chance it. Sirius will be coming along any minute now, and he'll think of something worse than what I've come up with, no doubt."

That was true – all four Marauders had the same classes, and they had already arranged to cut class that day. And really, telling Sir Hook Nose to get lost now was a mercy, because Padfoot would no doubt do exactly what James had been thinking, but with less underpants and more indecent exposure. He held the wand steady, staring the reedy boy down, until finally he cracked. "I've got better things to do than take threats from you," the coward spat, turning on his heel and stalking away as quick as his stupid chicken legs would take him. James watched him leave with a scowl etched deeply on his face and turned on his heel as well, shoving his wand back into his robes and stomping down the corridor, his good mood ruined entirely. It was time to find his friends.

No sooner had he turned the corner than did Sirius show up, looking perfectly messy as always. The girls loved the disarranged uniform and generally scruffy air that his best friend had, but James knew that the 'I just got out of bed' look took Sirius hours to perfect. It was embarrassing how vain he was. James was willing to bet it took girls less time to get ready in the morning than it did Sirius. He had said so, he said so almost every morning, but Sirius never really paid attention: he was always too busy admiring himself in the mirror.

"How'd it go?" The question was thrown at him casually, as if he already knew that the answer would be a definite and resounding negative. James ignored it, shooting a question back by way of reply. "Where's Moony and Wormtail?" Sirius shrugged. "In class. They didn't want to cut two lessons in a row. Moony was worried he'd miss something important." The handsome boy scoffed to show what he thought of that. "So I assume your plan didn't work, since you didn't answer my question?" James gave him an annoyed look. "It worked. The old man didn't suspect a thing." "Or he decided to spare you a lecture that he knew you'd only pretend to listen to." James laughed and shook his head. "Maybe. Either way, Evans and I have a project to do. _Together._ How's that for working out?"

Sirius looked shocked for a moment, then a slow smile spread across his face. "Not bad, Prongs. Not bad at all." James shrugged modestly, although he was near bursting with pride. "I suppose." Then his expression darkened. "Snivellus Snape ruined it for me, though. He showed his ugly face outside her classroom a few minutes later. I nearly stripped him and ran him through the school naked, but I decided to spare him." Sirius scowled at the mention of the Slytherin. "He's a twat. I suppose he ran crying for his mother?" James smiled grimly at the mental image. "Tail between his legs," he said, clearly taking pleasure in the idea. Sirius laughed and they began to walk, ambling aimlessly and without anywhere to be. The dark-haired pair made quite a sight as they trawled the corridors, not caring how loud they were, and that was how it should be – Padfoot and Prongs, brothers in all but blood. But even as he chatted loudly to his companion and made faces at third years while they had classes, there was a panic brewing in his gut, he could feel it. He had no idea how he was going to handle an evening with Lily Evans without embarrassing himself or acting like a complete asshat. He was loathe to admit it, but he was scared. He was scared to death.

It was annoying.


End file.
